May 30, 2012

Fourth-round pick Kyle Wilber has pins removed from his finger

Outside linebacker Kyle Wilber had the pins removed from his right index finger Wednesday. He now can start conditioning, even though he will wear his plastic cast for another week.

Wilber, a fourth-round draft pick, was injured during the rookie minicamp earlier this month. He said he could return for the team's mandatory minicamp in two weeks while wearing a club on his hand to protect his finger. Veteran linebacker Sean Lee played part of last season while wearing a club to protect his dislocated left wrist.

Wilber said he has experience playing with a club on his hand, having briefly done it in high school.

"It's definitely frustrating," Wilber said. "All I can do is get mental reps, but phsyical reps are the most important things. You get muscle memory from it and get in condition. Just knowing different things on the field when it happens. So it really hurts not to be out there."

Wilber said the hardest part has been trying to take notes in meetings. He is right-handed.

"I've been getting my left-handed signature down," Wilber said. "Eating is pretty easy. The hardest thing actually is just taking notes during meetings and stuff, because everybody is writing fast,and I'm just kind of scribbling words down on paper. They just gave us these Ipads, so now I can just use my fingers."

Wilber, who played 2 1/2 seasons at defensive end at Wake Forest before moving to outside linebacker, will compete for time at strongside linebacker behind Anthony Spencer. He also is expected to play special teams.